Zhouyuan Garden

Zhouyuan Garden

Zhouyuan Garden is a cultural relic protection unit of Wenzhou City.

Zhouyuan Garden is located by Shengxi Bridge on the shore of Jiushan Lake in Lucheng District. It was built by the academic community of Wenzhou in memory of Sun Yirang and consists of the Zhougong Ancestral Hall and the Zhouyuan Library. It was completed in 1916. In 1919, it was called the Wenzhou Prefecture Library. The plaque inscribed with “Old Wenzhou Prefecture Six-County Joint Zhouyuan Library” features seal script by Du Shipu from Qingtian. The large stone above the gate is engraved with the two characters “Zhouyuan” written by Zhang Qian from Nantong. The Zhougong Ancestral Hall has three rooms, faces east, and is a five-bay hip-and-gable roof structure. The central bay features a raised-beam frame, while the side bays have a mixed raised-beam and through-tenon frame. It is surrounded by corridors and features open-sided wooden architecture. The library has four bays and is a Western-style structure housing a collection of books, including many rare editions. It includes the Fuying Pavilion, which faces west with five bays under a rolled shed roof, spanning 10.7 meters in width and 5.6 meters in depth, surrounded by corridors. The eastern corridor is furnished with straight latticework seating railings.

Sun Yirang, also known as Zhourui, was an eminent scholar and educator. In 1912, cultural and educational figures in Wenzhou purchased the former site of the Zeng family’s Yilv Garden to build the Zhougong Ancestral Hall. In 1919, they established the Old Wenzhou Prefecture Six-County Joint Zhouyuan Library on the same site.

In June 1981, Zhouyuan Garden was designated by the Wenzhou Municipal People's Government as one of the first batch of cultural relic protection units in Wenzhou City.

Protection Level: County (city, district)-level Cultural Relic Protection Unit

Time Period: Qing Dynasty, Republic of China

Announcement Date: June 11, 1981

Category: Ancient Architecture

Protected Area: Extends east to the eastern bank of the small river; north bounded by the surrounding wall; south to Jiushan River; west bounded by a straight line from the surrounding wall to the Jiushan River.